We can learn from the Saints!

[MoonGlow]

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I was reading this while listening to this>>Kutless - Promise of a lifetime Lyrics - YouTube
I had to share it 'coZ this song's message touched my deepest core..
hope you like it too...

TOP COMMENT ON SITE:
i had a moment of hopelessness and i tried to kill myself. i called my friend and he said to listen to this song. i did and after i put my gun away and got help... thanks to my bf eryk and to kutless for this amazing song without them id be gone. god bless

Perhaps you can help out there in the Depression/Suicidal thread at the Fitness and Health section. thanks.

[MoonGlow]

"We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen away, and to bring home those who have lost their way. Many who seem to us to be children of the Devil will still become Christ's disciples."
(St. Francis of Assisi)

Mao ni sya kato sa movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon noh?

[koralstratz]

OT: ^^ asa na man ang Holy Cross karon bro?

Ang mga relics bro sa True Cross is somewhere in Rome...dili lang ko sure kun unsa nga religious congregation ang nag keep ani pero naa gihapon hangtod karon. Other religious congregations even outside Rome had even requested and acquired pieces (small portions) of it for VENERATION purposes only.

Murag si bro libraun maka tubag siguro tu sya og mas detalye kay super kaayo to sya maka venerate ug holy relics

Bro libraun?? paging...paging



@moonglow: St. Francis and St. Clare ...yes sila tong duha sa Brother Sun and Sister Moon nga movie

http://youtu.be/DwNVhldmM0g

[koralstratz]

Ahak! Hahaha tinood bitaw! ROCK jd to akong basa hahaha. hibung jd ko..kansa man jd na si St. Rock ha. hehhee
Murag akong auntie...ge pangutan-an nga wala ba daw silay problema sa sulod..ana pd siya....Ay naa pd uy taw ra baya gehapun me hehehe

Wala pako kita ana pero naay gamayng scene lang..
o bugoy kau ko sa tinod-anay lang. dali kau akong utok maka think og inamaw...diha ra pd ko maayu..may lang tas lawgaw ani hehehe
Karon pa ko kabantay bya honestly nga ang Dog ka dala diay og pan.


Pa preso na ku brad hopefully soon...suggest a possible crime na akong buhaton .hehe

Possible crime that you can make??

Hhmmmm.......shed a tear and a prayer for APOSTATES and ATHEISTS.....those holy tears were the ones who saved me a long time ago sis

[petite fleur]

Mao ni sya kato sa movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon noh?

Yep. Si St.Francis. Akong Idol.

[carbrill]

ask lang ko guys unsa may mga title sa mga movies sa mga saints kung naa... thank you!

[Gone_rouge]

Hi.. Nice post.... Agi lang ko..... Pwede request st. Theresa de avila..... Her story of sainthood just a request....

[petite fleur]

ask lang ko guys unsa may mga title sa mga movies sa mga saints kung naa... thank you!

K I'll start....
These are the few that I've seen.


Thérèse: The Story of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (2004)
Thérèse 1986 (available on YT with English subtitle) better than ^
"Antonio Guerrero de Dios" Anthony, Warrior of God (2006) ~Life of St. Anthony of Padua
Molokai- The story of Father Damien
Faustina
Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor
Brother Sun and Sister Moon ~Life of St Francis, St. Clare is also included (Musical)
Francis of Assisi ~The Life of St. Francis and with St. Clare
Saint Rita ~Life of St. Rita of Cascia
St. Teresa of the Andes ~(Carmelite) Available on YT with eng. subtitle
The Messenger. Story of St. Joan of Arc
The song of Bernadette ~ Story of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, wherein our Lady of Lourdes appeared to her
St. John Bosco

[petite fleur]

Hi.. Nice post.... Agi lang ko..... Pwede request st. Theresa de avila..... Her story of sainthood just a request....

Ako AKo ani @ Wen and Koral hehehehe

okay I will post in just a few...

[petite fleur]

St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila)
Madre Teresa de Jesus (de Avila) Avila, Spain
Mother Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order (O.C.D.)
Doctor of the Church
Mystic

[IMG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d84cR7sJV0s/ThojQVK6GtI/AAAAAAAAAGM/MGYdtF9rCYs*******lalala.jpg[/IMG]


Nada te turbe, Dios Solo Basta (Let nothing disturb you...God Alone Suffices)
~St. Teresa

"It is not without reason that I dwell so long on that which has been the most difficult portion of my life. I did not lean on my strong pillar of prayer, and so I passed nearly twenty years of my life on a stormy sea, constantly tossed with the tempest and never coming to the harbor. It was the most painful life that can be imagined, because I had no sweetness in God, and certainly no sweetness in sin." ~St Teresa


Saint Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, March 28, 1515. She died in Alba, October 4, 1582. Her family origins have been traced to Toledo and Olmedo. Her father, Alonso de Cepeda, was a son of a Toledan merchant, Juan Sanchez de Toledo and Ines de Cepeda, originally from Tordesillas. Juan transferred his business to Avila, where he succeeded in having his children marry into families of the nobility. In 1505 Alonso married Catalina del Peso, who bore him two children and died in 1507. Two years later Alonso married the 15-year-old Beatriz de Ahumada of whom Teresa was born.

"It helped me too that I never saw my father and mother respect anything but goodness"

Early Life. In 1528, when Teresa was 15, her mother died, leaving behind 10 children. Teresa was the "most beloved of them all." She was of medium height, large rather than small, and generally well proportioned. In her youth she had the reputation of being quite beautiful, and she retained her fine appearance until her last years.

Her personality was extroverted, her manner affectionately buoyant, and she had the ability to adapt herself easily to all kinds of persons and circumstances. She was skillful in the use of the pen, in needlework, and in household duties. Her courage and enthusiasm were readily kindled, an early example of which trait occurred when at the age of 7 she left home with her brother Rodrigo with the intention of going to Moorish territory to be beheaded for Christ, but they were frustrated by their uncle, who met the children as they were leaving the city and brought them home.



"My favorite brother and I used to read the lives of the saints. When I read
of the martyrdom that was undergone by the saints for the love of God
it struck me that the vision of God was cheaply purchased."

" We decided to go together to the country of the Moors, begging God
that we might there be beheaded. Our Lord, I believe,
had given us courage even at so tender an age."

At about 12 the fervor of her piety waned somewhat. She began to take an interest in the development of her natural attractions and in books of chivalry. Her affections were directed especially to her cousins, the Mejias, children of her aunt Dona Elvira, and she gave some thought to marriage. Her father was disturbed by these fancies and opposed them. While she was in this crisis, her mother died. Afflicted and lonely, Teresa appealed to the Blessed Virgin to be her mother. Seeing his daughter's need of prudent guidance, her father entrusted her to the Augustinian nuns at Santa Maria de Gracia in 1531.

After this incident she led a fairly ordinary life, though she was convinced that she was a horrible sinner. As a teenager, she cared only about boys and clothes and flirting and rebelling -- like other teenagers throughout the ages. When she was 16, her father decided she was out of control and sent her to a convent. At first she hated it but eventually she began to enjoy it -- partly because of her growing love for God, and partly because the convent was a lot less strict than her father.

Still, when the time came for her to choose between marriage and religious life, she had a tough time making the decision. She'd watched a difficult marriage ruin her mother. On the other hand being a nun didn't seem like much fun. When she finally chose religious life, she did so because she though that it was the only safe place for someone as prone to sin as she was.

"I remember perfectly well,and it is quite true, that
the pain I felt when I left my father's house was so great, that
I do not believe the pain of dying will be greater--for it seemed
to me as if every bone in my body were wrenched asunder..."

Once installed at the Carmelite convent permanently, she started to learn and practice mental prayer, in which she "tried as hard as I could to keep Jesus Christ present within me....My imagination is so dull that I had no talent for imagining or coming up with great theological thoughts." Teresa prayed this way off and on for eighteen years without feeling that she was getting results. Part of the reason for her trouble was that the convent was not the safe place she assumed it would be.

Many women who had no place else to go wound up at the convent, whether they had vocations or not. They were encouraged to stay away from the convents for long period of time to cut down on expenses. Nuns would arrange their veils attractively and wear jewelry. Prestige depended not on piety but on money. There was a steady stream of visitors in the parlor and parties that included young men. What spiritual life there was involved hysteria, weeping, exaggerated penance, nosebleeds, and self- induced visions.

Teresa suffered the same problem that Francis of Assisi did -- she was too charming. Everyone liked her and she liked to be liked. She found it too easy to slip into a worldly life and ignore God. The convent encouraged her to have visitors to whom she would teach mental prayer because their gifts helped the community economy. But Teresa got more involved in flattery, vanity and gossip than spiritual guidance. These weren't great sins perhaps but they kept her from God.

"If our Lord bore so long with me in all my wickedness, why should anyone else despair, how wicked he or she may be?"

Then Teresa fell ill with malaria. When she had a seizure, people were so sure she was dead that after she woke up four days later she learned they had dug a grave for her. Afterwards she was paralyzed for three years and was never completely well. Yet instead of helping her spiritually, her sickness became an excuse to stop her prayer completely: she couldn't be alone enough, she wasn't healthy enough, and so forth. Later she would say, "Prayer is an act of love, words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love."

For years she hardly prayed at all "under the guise of humility." She thought as a wicked sinner she didn't deserve to get favors from God. But turning away from prayer was like "a baby turning from its mother's breasts, what can be expected but death?"

"I prayed earnestly that our Lord would hold me by the hand and not allow me to fall again, now that I was under the direction of His servants."

When she was 41, a priest convinced her to go back to her prayer, but she still found it difficult. "I was more anxious for the hour of prayer to be over than I was to remain there. I don't know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer." She was distracted often: "This intellect is so wild that it doesn't seem to be anything else than a frantic madman no one can tie down." Teresa sympathizes with those who have a difficult time in prayer: "All the trials we endure cannot be compared to these interior battles."

Yet her experience gives us wonderful descriptions of mental prayer: "For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything."

As she started to pray again, God gave her spiritual delights: the prayer of quiet where God's presence overwhelmed her senses, raptures where God overcame her with glorious foolishness, prayer of union where she felt the sun of God melt her soul away. Sometimes her whole body was raised from the ground. If she felt God was going to levitate her body, she stretched out on the floor and called the nuns to sit on her and hold her down. Far from being excited about these events, she "begged God very much not to give me any more favors in public."

In her books, she analyzed and dissects mystical experiences the way a scientist would. She never saw these gifts as rewards from God but the way he "chastised" her. The more love she felt the harder it was to offend God. She says, "The memory of the favor God has granted does more to bring such a person back to God than all the infernal punishments imaginable."

Her biggest fault was her friendships. Though she wasn't sinning, she was very attached to her friends until God told her "No longer do I want you to converse with human beings but with angels." In an instant he gave her the freedom that she had been unable to achieve through years of effort. After that God always came first in her life.

Some friends, however, did not like what was happening to her and got together to discuss some "remedy" for her. Concluding that she had been deluded by the devil, they sent a Jesuit to analyze her. The Jesuit reassured her that her experiences were from God but soon everyone knew about her and was making fun of her.

One confessor was so sure that the visions were from the devil that he told her to make an obscene gesture called the fig every time she had a vision of Jesus. She cringed but did as she was ordered, all the time apologizing to Jesus. Fortunately, Jesus didn't seem upset but told her that she was right to obey her confessor. In her autobiography she would say, "I am more afraid of those who are terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself." The devil was not to be feared but fought by talking more about God.

Teresa felt that the best evidence that her delights came from God was that the experiences gave her peace, inspiration, and encouragement. "If these effects are not present I would greatly doubt that the raptures come from God; on the contrary I would fear lest they be caused by rabies."

Sometimes, however, she couldn't avoid complaining to her closest Friend about the hostility and gossip that surrounded her. When Jesus told her, "Teresa, that's how I treat my friends" Teresa responded, "No wonder you have so few friends." But since Christ has so few friends, she felt they should be good ones. And that's why she decided to reform her Carmelite order.

At the age of 43, she became determined to found a new convent that went back to the basics of a contemplative order: a simple life of poverty devoted to prayer. This doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Wrong.

When plans leaked out about her first convent, St. Joseph's, she was denounced from the pulpit, told by her sisters she should raise money for the convent she was already in, and threatened with the Inquisition. The town started legal proceedings against her. All because she wanted to try a simple life of prayer. In the face of this open war, she went ahead calmly, as if nothing was wrong, trusting in God.

"May God protect me from gloomy saints," Teresa said, and that's how she ran her convent. To her, spiritual life was an attitude of love, not a rule. Although she proclaimed poverty, she believed in work, not in begging. She believed in obedience to God more than penance. If you do something wrong, don't punish yourself -- change. When someone felt depressed, her advice was that she go some place where she could see the sky and take a walk. When someone was shocked that she was going to eat well, she answered, "There's a time for partridge and a time for penance." To her brother's wish to meditate on hell, she answered, "Don't."

Her Sense of Humor...

One of Teresa's charms was a sense of humor. In the early years, when an indiscreet male visitor to the convent once praised the beauty of her bare feet, she laughed and told him to take a good look at them for he would never see them again-implying that in the future he would not be admitted. Her method of selecting novices was characteristic. The first requirement, even before piety, was intelligence. A woman could attain to piety, but scarcely to intelligence, by which she meant common sense as well as brains. "An intelligent mind," she wrote, "is simple and teachable; it sees its faults and allows itself to be guided. A mind that is dull and narrow never sees its faults even when shown them. It is always pleased with itself and never learns to do right." Pretentiousness and pride annoyed her. Once a young woman of high reputation for virtue asked to be admitted to a convent in Teresa's charge, and added, as if to emphasize her intellect, "I shall bring my Bible with me." "What," exclaimed Teresa, "your Bible? Do not come to us. We are only poor women who know nothing but how to spin and do as we are told."

The hardships and dangers involved in Teresa's labors are indicated by a little episode of the founding of a new convent at Salamanca. She and another nun took over a house which had been occupied by students. It was a large, dirty, desolate place, without furnishings, and when night came the two nuns lay down on their piles of straw, for, Teresa tells us, "the first furniture I provided wherever I founded convents was straw, for, having that, I reckoned I had beds." On this occasion, the other nun seemed very nervous, and Teresa asked her the reason. "I was wondering," was the reply, "what you would do alone with a corpse if I were to die here now." Teresa was startled, but only said, "I shall think of that when it happens, Sister. For the present, let us go to sleep."

Once she had her own convent, she could lead a life of peace, right? Wrong again. Teresa believed that the most powerful and acceptable prayer was that prayer that leads to action. Good effects were better than pious sensations that only make the person praying feel good.

At St. Joseph's, she spent much of her time writing her Life. She wrote this book not for fun but because she was ordered to. Many people questioned her experiences and this book would clear her or condemn her. Because of this, she used a lot of camouflage in the book, following a profound thought with the statement, "But what do I know. I'm just a wretched woman." The Inquisition liked what they read and cleared her.

At 51, she felt it was time to spread her reform movement. She braved burning sun, ice and snow, thieves, and rat-infested inns to found more convents. But those obstacles were easy compared to what she face from her brothers and sisters in religious life. She was called "a restless disobedient gadabout who has gone about teaching as though she were a professor" by the papal nuncio. When her former convent voted her in as prioress, the leader of the Carmelite order excommunicated the nuns. A vicar general stationed an officer of the law outside the door to keep her out. The other religious orders opposed her wherever she went. She often had to enter a town secretly in the middle of the night to avoid causing a riot.

And the help they received was sometimes worse than the hostility. A princess ordered Teresa to found a convent and then showed up at the door with luggage and maids. When Teresa refused to order her nuns to wait on the princess on their knees, the princess denounced Teresa to the Inquisition.

In another town, they arrived at their new house in the middle of the night, only to wake up the next morning to find that one wall of the building was missing.

Why was everyone so upset? Teresa said, "Truly it seems that now there are no more of those considered mad for being true lovers of Christ." No one in religious orders or in the world wanted Teresa reminding them of the way God said they should live.

Teresa looked on these difficulties as good publicity. Soon she had postulants clamoring to get into her reform convents. Many people thought about what she said and wanted to learn about prayer from her. Soon her ideas about prayer swept not only through Spain but all of Europe.

In 1582, she was invited to found a convent by an Archbishop but when she arrived in the middle of the pouring rain, he ordered her to leave. "And the weather so delightful too" was Teresa's comment. Though very ill, she was commanded to attend a noblewoman giving birth. By the time they got there, the baby had already arrived so, as Teresa said, "The saint won't be needed after all." Too ill to leave, she died on October 4 at the age of 67.

She is the founder of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church for her writing and teaching on prayer, one of two women to be honored in this way.

St. Teresa is the patron saint of Headache sufferers. Her symbol is a heart, an arrow, and a book. She was canonized in 1622.


Famous works of St. Teresa of Avila
Teresa is also known for her incomparable writings, which were produced during these busy and turbulent times. Her most famous works are her Autobiography, Way of Perfection, and Interior Castle. Teresa was a woman of deep spirituality and complete detachment from the world, yet she never lost her charm or her fantastic sense of humor. She was always a loving mother to all her sisters and brothers. Teresa died on October 4, 1582 (October 14 by the Gregorian calendar, which we use today) at Alba, just months after establishing her last foundation. She was canonized in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, and in 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI-the first woman ever to be given that great honor by the Church. Her feast day is October 15.

The Book of Her Life (Her autobiography)
The Way of Perfection
Interior Castle

Online Source Works by St. Teresa of Avila | Christian Classics Ethereal Library

THE MAXIMS OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA

1. Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so. also, the mind of man.
2. Speak well of all that is spiritual, such as religious, priests, and hermits.
3. Let thy words be few when in the midst of many.
4. Be modest in all thy words and works.
5. Never be obstinate, especially in things of no moment.
6. In speaking to others be always calm and cheerful.
7. Never make a jest of anything.
8. Never rebuke any one but with discretion, and humility, and self-abasement.
9. Bend thyself to the temper of whomever is speaking to thee: be merry with the mirthful, sorrowful with the sad: in a word, make thyself all things to all, to gain all.
10. Never say anything thou hast not well considered and earnestly commended to our Lord, that nothing may be spoken which shall be displeasing unto Him.
11. Never defend thyself unless there be very good reasons for it.
12. Never mention anything concerning thyself which men account praiseworthy, such as learning, goodness, birth, unless with a hope of going good thereby, and then let it be done with humility, remembering that these are gifts of God.
13. Never exaggerate, but utter thy mind in simplicity.
14. In all talking and conversation let something be always said of spiritual things, and so shall all idle words and evil-speaking be avoided.
15. Never assert anything without being first assured of it.
16. Never come forward to give thine own opinion about anything unless asked to do so, or charity requires it.
17. When any one is speaking of spiritual things do thou listen humbly and like a learner, and take to thyself the good that is spoken.
18. Make known to thy superior and confessor all thy temptations, imperfections, and dislikes, that he may give thee counsel and help thee to overcome them.
19. Do not stay out of thy cell, nor go forth from it without cause, and when thou goest forth beg of God the grace not to offend him.
20. Never eat or drink except at the usual times, and then give earnest thanks to God.

Spiritual Maxims of St Teresa of Avila | Catholic-Pages.com

Andecdotes..

~After falling in the mud, Saint Teresa of Avila muttered:
"No wonder you have so few friends, Lord, the way you treat them!"

~One day a young nun approached Saint Teresa and confessed to a plenitude of spiritual tribulations and terrible sins. Having listened for some time, Saint Teresa offered a word of advice: "We know, sister, that none of us is perfect," she declared. "Just take care that your sins don't turn into bad habits."

~It is said that John, known for his severe austerity, was forever challenging Teresa about her excessive attachment to forms. At one point he convinced her to strip the walls of her cell of all the pictures of Christ, the Blessed Mother and the saints she had plastered there.

Teresa obeyed, but she was miserable. She prayed fervently for the poverty of spirit required for this important mortification, but detachment was not forthcoming. Instead, she had a vision of Christ. “Which is better?” he asked her, “poverty or charity?” Then he said, “If love is better, you must not give up anything that awakens love in you.” And so Teresa joyfully hung all her pictures back up.